Somebody to Love
by Oxnate
Summary: Odd people have odd definitions of Love.
1. Chapter 1

Somebody to Love

by Oxnate

* * *

Like most of my stories this title is inspired by a song. In this case it's "Somebody to Love" by Queen. I do not own. Also do not own Buffy or Stargate SG-1.

I saw an opportunity to combine my favorite pairing with something that was not your typical "heal-Faith-turn". Which is my take on the heel-face-turn trope where Faith goes from being badass to suddenly becoming monogamous and all lovey dovey and simply not Faith anymore.

Challenge response: Wesley and Willow Anniversary Challenge:

_From a topic I started on the forum it came up that Denisof and Hannigan's anniversary is approaching and the idea of a Denisof/Hannigan challenge came up. I'd like to issue (part of) that challenge... _

_**I am specifically interested in Willow and Wesley AS A COUPLE** as it's much too rare in fanfic._

Also the 'Waking up in Vegas' Challenge.

* * *

Prologue _OR_ the AU Buffy/Angel verse: (Selected scenes from Stargate SG-1, AtS Season-4, and BtVS Season-7 that went differently than canon)

AKA Chapter 1.

Angel and Wesley were talking away from the crew. "Sure I can't convince you to stay? We could still use your help against the Beast's Master." Angel pointed out.

"Something is killing watchers and Slayers the world over. I feel I'm needed more there." Wesley looked over at Faith. "Besides, you have your redemption to work on, I have mine." He turn to look where Fred was talking to someone. Saying goodbye to Fred in his mind.

"They're very alike, you know." Angel said.

"Fred and Faith?" Wesley wondered.

Angel gave him a look and lifted his head at the person Fred was talking to. "No, Fred and Willow. If one had taken up the other's passion for science or magic... I'm not sure we could tell them apart. Except for the hair."

Wesley widened his vision to include both Fred and Willow as they talked. There were many similarities: intelligent, beautiful, dangerous given the right circumstances. But as a special bonus, Willow wasn't dating Gunn. He wasn't sure if she was dating anyone at all but even if she was, there was nothing left for him here. Lilah was dead and Fred... looking at Fred every day and not being with her was killing him. It really was time to leave.

* * *

The first thing Wesley did when he got to Revello Drive was take over the training of the potentials.

"You can't do this." Kennedy argued. "They're mine. I've been teaching them everything my watcher taught me."

"Yes, and how many demons have you killed?" Wesley replied calmly. No answer was forthcoming. "I thought as much." He turned to the rest of the assembled girls. "What I have to offer you is simple. So far you have been taught a fighting style suitable for Slayers. Which you aren't. And hopefully, you never will be. I can teach you a style suitable for human strength, which has been battle tested over the past several years by _me_, a mere human, as I fought and killed many vampires and demons. And should any of you ever become the Slayer, you will find it an excellent base even with the extra strength. Any takers?"

When everyone but Chao-ahn and Kennedy had raised their hands, the other two girls raised their hands. Though he was pretty sure that the Chinese Slayer was just going along with the crowd.

"Good. Now we don't have much time, so for now, no more training barehanded. If you ever find yourselves in an unarmed fight... run. As well, you should all be armed at all times from now on." Wesley pulled out his collapsible sword.

"Cool." one of the girls said.

"Very. I only wish we had the time or the money to get you all one of these." he said as he tucked it back in its hiding place.

"Or enough money to arm all the girls." Kennedy muttered as she crossed her arms.

"We don't have enough weapons for everyone?" Wesley asked.

All the girls shook their heads.

A crate with 50 longswords was delivered that night. Wesley sighed and hoped his personal finances would hold out until the end of this apocalypse. Even good quality normal swords were expensive enough. Never mind the rush shipping.

* * *

Once they were called in, Wesley mowed down plenty of Bringers with his _alternate_ weaponry. The potentials also were doing fairly okay with their new swords. At least all of them were armed with something long and sharp. It really helped against the Bringers. Not so much against Caleb. Caleb broke Rona's arm at the elbow and snapped Dianne's neck. At which point, Wesley pulled out his twin pistols and pumped round after round into the preacher to keep him at bay while Xander dragged the last potential from the vineyard. While they didn't seem to be killing him, the preacher did not seem to enjoy being shot with hypersonic lead.

* * *

O'Neill was pleased to have finally left Colorado Springs. He'd been planning this road trip for as long as he'd known Teal'c. Security concerns about the possibility of his symbiote escaping had prevented it. But now that the Jaffa had Tretonin to replace 'Jr.' and had proved himself a reliable ally, there was no further security related reason to keep him on the base. Their first attempt at a road trip had been delayed by... something in LA. It had turned out not to be Goa'uld in origin and had gone away on its own, but it had put the whole base on alert. Once they'd had permission again, they went North East to visit Mount Rushmore as their first major landmark. Then West to Seattle.

"Why is this called the Space Needle, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked. "It does not go into space. It does not even reach the upper atmosphere."

Dr. Jackson jumped in. "When it was built, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. Also, the shape of this deck is reminiscent of 'flying saucers'. A- ah... type of mythical alien spacecraft reputed to visit Earth every so often."

Teal'c looked down at a picture on the pamphlet he was holding. "I know of no spacecraft of that shape."

"Yes... we know. That's why I said it was mythical." Daniel agreed. "Anyway, just wait until we get to Roswell. I'll be able to explain a lot more about our alien mythologies there."

"Haven't you, yourself, often pointed out that many of your mythologies turned out to be true?" Teal'c asked.

Daniel nodded. "Partly true at least. Aliens do exist. And one common shape for them does resemble an Asgard. We don't know where the saucer shape of the myth came from yet. The current theory of those on the base is that it was the shape of an Asgard ship that crashed here sometime. Possibly in Roswell but probably not."

* * *

Wesley was certain that with just a few weeks study, Dawn could be nearly fluent in Cantonese. The girl was a natural at learning languages. As it was, his own tenuous grasp of the language had made the Chinese slayer, Chao-ahn, into his new shadow. She would not leave his side. Though, at least he had company. Faith wanted little to do with him, Buffy wanted less, and Willow had turned out to be in her own words; 'kinda gay'. Something she had failed to mention in LA. So Chao-ahn was his friend for now and as long as they both talked slowly, and with the occasional use of a Cantonese to English dictionary, they could be understood. Which was a nice change for both of them. Wesley's understanding helped him teach her English, which she knew a bit of just from western TV programs. In any event, her English was improving much more quickly thanks to his tutelage.

* * *

Faith finished knocking out the last of the officers trying to kill her in the alley behind the Bronze.

"Oh. Wonderful. See girls? The Sunnydale Police Department has been kind enough to donate some firearms to our cause." Wesley said as he relieved the downed officers of their weapons. "Do be good and check their cars for some ammunition. Oh! And shotguns. You can never have too many shotguns." he said to the potentials, then he turned to Faith. "Are you alright?"

"M'fine." Faith said. "What about you?" she gestured towards his lip.

He stuck out his tongue and tasted the blood. "It's nothing. The one inside took offense to us exercising our constitutional rights. Girls took care of him though. Kennedy taught them well." he nodded to the girl in question.

"I thought you were their drill instructor now?" Kennedy asked.

"Perhaps. But I didn't teach them anything they did in there. That was all you." Wesley gave a little bow. "I think it's time to head back to-"

"Faith? What's going on?" Buffy interrupted.

* * *

"But you didn't earn it. You didn't work for it. You've never had anybody come up to you and say you deserve these things more than anyone else. They were just handed to you. So that doesn't make you better than us. It makes you luckier than us." Anya finished her speech.

"Well, I for one would rather be lucky than good." Wesley enjoined. "Your idea has merit. There probably is something there."

"Thank y-"

"However, now is not the time. The girls need more time to train. The newest ones especially so. And I need to hear a plan to keep Caleb away while we attack. Otherwise, it's not worth the risk." Wesley finished.

"Yeah, Buff. Maybe you're being just a bit rash. Again." Xander stated.

* * *

"How did I beat you?" Wesley asked Kennedy as she laid on the ground.

"You're faster and stronger than me. More skilled too." she finally admitted.

"True. But I'm only human. Most of the things I've killed were both faster and stronger than _me_. A few were even more skilled. I've survived because I disregarded the council's teachings and stopped fighting fair. I _cheat_." he gestured to his jacket where his shoulder holsters and twin pistols lay. "You. Molly, you're next." and he started sparring with her. He didn't duck when he heard the blow coming from behind, even though one of the girls shouted a warning. He just looked up at Faith – where she watched from the porch – and smiled even as he was conked from behind.

Once he had recovered from the blow he told Kennedy, "Good job, Kennedy. There are no points for chivalry in this fight and the prize for second place is death. Simple biology means you aren't going to match up against your opponents one on one. And I'm talking more about you being human than being female. So, you need to double or even triple-team them. One girl blocks the blow while another strikes. And then the two of you are free to help others." Everyone smiled at the thought of how that would snowball.

* * *

"Whadaya think?" Buffy asked once she had gone over her plan.

"If I could make _one_ suggestion?" Wesley offered.

"You don't think it's a good plan?" Buffy replied.

"I think it might work. I just want to know why we'd wait until the potentials are already facing off against an army of Turok-han before empowering them? Why not do it _before_ we open the seal?" he asked.

"Oh. Well... umm..."

Faith smirked. "Score one for the watcher."

"Okay. We do the spell before we go through the seal. Any other suggestions?" Buffy said.

* * *

Wesley and Chao-ahn were chosen to guard Willow. Willow chose him because he 'wouldn't hesitate to do what was needed' and Chao-ahn... wasn't really interested in leaving his side. Plus having a Slayer there if the witch went dark could be handy. Wesley made sure he brushed up on how to say 'kill her' in Cantonese.

* * *

The potentials circled the seal as Buffy joined them.

"Okay guys. As soon as you feel strong, we go."

…

…

…

"I feel it!" several girls shouted.

"Let's kick some ass."

* * *

Wesley had his shotgun out and the safety off when Willow started the spell. He got more than a little nervous when her hair turned white.

#"I feel it! I feel it!"# Chao-ahn told him in Cantonese.

"Well done, Willow." he put the shotgun away. She slid the Scythe over to him and he gave it to Chao-ahn. #"Give this to Buffy."# he told the new Slayer in Cantonese.

She smiled and left his side willingly for the first time in weeks.

He watched her go before turning back to Willow who had sunk to the floor. "Come on. We need to get the bus ready." he said as he tried to help her to her feet. When he figured out she was too weak to even walk he threw one of her arms over his shoulder and carried her out of the school.

* * *

SG-1's sight-seeing trip finally got to LA. They had business here. A few days back on the clock for Sam to run some tests and figure out what the hell had happened here.

And just when they were about to continue their trip, they had to head back North. A small town called Sunnydale had just collapsed into itself. Jack couldn't even remember driving through a town with that name but found it on a map easily enough when he knew where to look.

They got to Sunnydale just a couple hours later to assist in the rescue efforts. But there were no survivors. After a few days the number of workers had swelled and it was clear that it was now a recovery effort rather than rescue.

"I'm sorry, Teal'c." Jack began. "This isn't what I wanted to show you when I said I was going to show you our country."

"On the contrary, O'Neill. Seeing common citizens unite to help those in need has been inspirational." Teal'c stated. "It tells me much about the people of the Tau'ri that I could not learn while on base."

"It's good that we could help but we've done what we can here. We'll be heading out in the morning." Jack said.

"What is our next destination?" the Jaffa asked.

"Las Vegas." Jack smiled.

* * *

"Man, I can't believe Angel and them actually signed up with Wolfram and Hart." Faith said. "You got out of there just in time, Wes."

"Perhaps. Remember that them signing up with Wolfram and Hart was what gave us the medallion that finally closed the Hellmouth." Wesley offered.

"Whatever. So where we off to next?" Faith asked.

"I thought we could all use a little vacation." Giles started. "And that green demon-"

"Lorne." Wesley interrupted.

"Yes, well it seems that he had some contacts and favors from his pre-Wolfram and Hart days that he's cashing in for us before people learn that he's working for an evil law firm. He's booked us a week in Las Vegas.

"Wicked. I could use a vacation."

* * *

A/N: In case you missed it, Wesley was busy pouring hot lead into the preacher at the time when said preacher otherwise would have been poking his finger into Xander's ocular cavity.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2.

Faith opened her eyes and grinned. Bits and pieces of last night were filtering in little by little. That, and her body was telling her that she'd had a good time that night. Gotten lucky. A couple of times if she wasn't mistaken. She couldn't remember who with yet, but it'd come back to her. Wouldn't be Wood. He was still recovering from a nasty wound to the gut. She hoped he'd understand that she didn't have enough time to wait for him to heal. If not? Then fuck him. Just not that second time like he'd wanted and nearly gotten.

She rolled over to find the guy surprisingly still there. Somewhat of a surprise, but she still couldn't remember his name, so she must have been pretty blasted by the time they'd met. He was older than she usually took, but still very good looking. He was in excellent shape. And also faking being asleep. "Hey. Wake up." she reached over to give him a slight nudge. And that's when she noticed the ring. A ring she very much didn't have when they left LA. "Well, sucks to be you, buddy."

"Why does it suck to be me?" the guy growled out without opening his eyes.

"Well, I feel sorry for any guy that marries me." she smiled.

That got his eyes open. "What!?"

She waved her left hand in front of him. "Well, I didn't have _this_ last night. So, it's just an educated guess for now. How's your hand look?"

"Look's a bit more married than it did yesterday." he allowed.

Faith jumped out of bed and found herself very naked. She glanced at the guy- No. She glanced at her _husband_ and found she liked the reaction he had. But decided that it would probably be faster to get some answers if she put on some clothes. She found her pants, bra, and shirt but couldn't find her panties. Looked like she was going commando. In her search she also found the marriage license and found out her husband's name was Jonathan O'Neill. It also showed that she had used her real name on marriage license. _That_ could be a problem.

"So, Jon." She began.

"Jack." he corrected. "Colonel Jack O'Neill of the U.S. Air Force."

"You're in the military?" Faith made a face. She didn't have a problem with the military but B's crew might. Now she had two problems to deal with. But before she could do anything about them, the door burst open. Faith was immediately in a fighting stance ready for the cops to come and try to take her away. It wasn't the cops though, it was Buffy.

"Faith, you're never going to guess who got married." Buffy said.

"I want to know who your source is so I can properly torture them." Faith held up her hand.

Buffy seemed to shut down at that. "Y- y- you- you- you-"

"Alright. I got this. First word... is 'you'." Faith pretended she was playing charades.

"_You_ got married!?" Buffy was almost yelling. "You!?"

"I know. Probably the last one you'd expect, right?" Faith smiled devilishly. Getting married was almost worth it just for the shock it gave B.

But Buffy's shock wore off at those words and it was Buffy's turn to give a wicked smile. "Well, not quite the last. W-"

Faith stopped Buffy by covering her mouth. "No names." she told her.

Then her husband joined them. "Hi, Colonel Jack O'Neill, U.S. Air Force. Are you a friend of Faith's?"

"She is." Faith answered for her. "But sadly she drank so much last night that she can't remember her own name or anyone else's." she gave a pointed look at Buffy.

"What are you talking about? And how am I supposed to tell you who got married if I can't tell you their names? Wait. Did you say Colonel? As in military?" Buffy rambled.

Faith showed her the marriage certificate. "Yes, he's in the military."

"What am I looking for?" Buffy wondered. She was a little hung up on the military part of the marriage.

Faith pointed at her name for the blonde Slayer.

"So? Oh. Oh! Ohhhh..." Buffy looked behind her then out the door she had left open before closing it. "But! There has to be something we can do. I mean we just... It's not fair."

"It's okay. I was never going further than Vegas anyway. Wanted a few more days vacation before I went back... But on the plus side, Angel is a lawyer now, or at least the boss of some very good, evil lawyers. I'll give him a call. I'm just sorry you guys have to cut your vacation short." Faith told her.

"Listen, just because he's in-" Buffy started.

"That. And you don't want to be known as associating with me. I'll give you guys a couple hours head start before I..." Faith guided her to the door.

"Thanks." Buffy gave her a hug. "Wait! Don't you want to know who else got married? You won't believe it."

"Only if you can tell me without him figuring it out." Faith twitched towards her husband who was now on the other side of the room, giving them some space. Or possibly looking for a weapon, it was hard to tell.

Buffy bit her lip for a second. "Okay. You know the original group?"

"Sure. Your dad, your sister, and your brother?" Faith offered code names.

"Right. Well... my sister got married last night. And _not_ to her girlfriend." Buffy smiled.

"Holy shit! She finally snagged your brother? And that sounds kinda gross. But you know what I mean." Faith said.

"No... she snagged... my dad's... brother." Buffy gave an evil smile.

It was Faith's turn to be flabbergasted. "As in... MY dad?"

"As in." Buffy nodded.

Faith shook off her shock much quicker than Buffy. "Damn. That's awesome."

"Not for everyone." Buffy's face fell a bit. "My sister's girlfriend and your dad's new friend have been circling for almost half an hour now. There's probably going to be blood. I'm just hoping I can keep the newlyweds safe."

"If anyone can, you can. But you get now. Remember to give me a call if you need my help again. Otherwise, I'll see you when I get out in a more official capacity." Faith gave her a smile.

"Thanks." Buffy said as she left.

Faith stared at the door for a bit before she turned to her husband. "I suppose you'd like an explanation for that?"

"Ya think?" Jack replied.

* * *

Talk about sisters marrying brothers and fathers bothered him a bit even though he knew it was a code. A weird code. But what bothered him more was that his new wife felt the need to talk around him in code. Neither one seemed pleased to learn he was in the military. Which bothered him on a personal level as the military was a big part of his life and a big part of the Earth still being in one piece. So, while presumably giving the girls some space, he was also looking around the room for his sidearm just in case the girls turned hostile, or _more_ hostile at least. He was pretty sure he'd left it in his own hotel room safe. Barring that, he was looking for anything he could use as a weapon.

The door shut and he turned.

"I suppose you'd like an explanation for that?" she asked.

"Ya think?" Jack replied, heading towards a table. She joined him and they sat in silence for a minute before he broke it. "What's going on? Why were you speaking in code?"

"Have you ever heard of spousal privilege?" she asked.

That was not what he'd been expecting. It was the privilege of spouses not to testify against one another in certain cases. He just nodded.

"Well, not that I ever thought _I'd_ be invoking it." she gave him a sultry smile. "But what I do know is that it's voluntary. You could testify if you chose to. So, I figured it was best not to give you any information that might compromise innocent people. Also, you can say honestly that you really don't know anything and you don't get in trouble either."

"Trouble?" he led.

"Ye-eah... Tell you what, I'll make you a deal. I'll tell you my whole story. Anything you want to know. Then we'll go get an annulment. But you just gotta promise to wait a couple hours for my friends to get out of town. They weren't involved in what I did and I don't want them caught up in it." Faith offered.

Jack considered for a moment. He needed information before he could decide anything. They could always pick up the friends later if they really were involved. And it was an honorable thing to do if they weren't. "Okay. You have my word."

"Okay then. Well I guess we should start with the part where I'm an escaped convict." Faith stated.

Jack swallowed, really wishing for his sidearm now. "Yeah, I guess that would be a good place to start."

* * *

"So let me get this straight. You killed a man in self defense and got 25 to life for it?" Jack asked. His earlier nervousness having been slowly drowned by building anger and the way this girl had been treated by the justice system.

"No, the self defense one got thrown out. That was just what drove me into the arms of my next employer. _That_ guy ordered a hit on a professor or some shit. And I killed _him_ in cold blood. That's what got me 25 to life." Faith corrected. "Which is kind of ironic when you think about it. The crime I committed that they almost killed me for wasn't a crime at all."

"Wait, kill you for? Who was trying to kill you?" Jack interrupted.

"Doesn't matter. They're dead." Faith deflected. "I didn't do it." she added quickly.

"But someone _was_ trying to kill you, yes? Someone in authority? So you sought protection with a criminal element. See, that's what we call extenuating circumstances." Jack growled as he ran a hand down his face in frustration.

"Whatever. It's been long enough. We should go get that annulment." Faith stood. A knock on the door stopped her. She sighed. "That'll be the cops. I'll give myself up. If you explain the sitch to them, they should be able to help you get the annulment soon enough."

the blonde woman at the door looked very surprised when Faith opened it. "Sorry, the front desk gave us this room number. We're looking for Jack O'Neill?"

"Huh. Jack, you know these people?" Faith stepped aside.

"Yeah, they're my colleagues from work. This is Sam, Daniel, and Murray. Guys, this is Faith." he came over to introduce them. Murray was Teal'c's cover name while he was off the base. 'Murray' also always wore a hat to cover up the unique, very odd, and very alien gold tattoo in the middle of his forehead.

"His wife." Faith smirked. She liked the reactions. The men were just shocked but the blonde clearly had a thing for her guy, judging by her outrage, which was quickly buried. "Just for today. We were about to go down and get it annulled."

"No we weren't." Jack stated forcefully.

"Huh?" she looked at him.

"Sir?" Sam said.

"You're a nice guy, Jack. But seriously. You don't want to be married to a- to someone like me. I'm bad news." Faith stated.

"To an ex-con?" Jack supplied. Daniel and Sam looked a bit surprised. Teal'c looked surprised... for Teal'c.

"Only get to be an 'ex' if the ever officially let me go. When you're still on the lam, you're still a con. Or maybe an escaped con. But not 'ex'." Faith explained.

"What do sheep have to do with criminal proceedings?" Teal'c asked Daniel softly.

To everyone's surprise Faith started laughing. "Wow, you're a hoot big guy. You wouldn't happen to have been cut off from human civilization for a thousand years, would you? Cause the last girl I knew..." she trailed off, suddenly sad again.

"What about her?" Daniel prompted.

"She died. Recently." Faith stated in a monotone.

"Did you kill her?" the archeologist asked.

"Daniel!" both Sam and Jack yelled.

"No. It's cool. And no, I didn't. She died when the town we were in sunk into a crater." Faith answered.

"You're from Sunnydale?" Sam asked.

"Oh yeah. Literally the last bus out. Got to watch it drop out from behind us through the back window as we drove out. Pretty intense. Just when we thought we were safe." she sighed. "How do you know about Sunnydale?"

"Don't you watch the news?" the other woman asked.

"Not really." Faith admitted. "Escaped con, remember? Don't want to see my face on the news."

"Sunnydale is kinda big news. What were you convicted of? We might be able to pull some favors in exchange for knowing what happened there. Right, sir?" Samantha offered.

"Actually, considering the sham of a trial she just told me about, I'm planning on looking into this anyways." Jack stated.

"Can we just get that annulment now?" Faith asked, trying to interrupt where the conversation was heading.

"Sorry. An annulment requires both parties' consent. And I'm not giving mine. Being your husband would get me access to things that would be hard to get otherwise." he explained. Easier access anyway. Fewer questions asked, fewer favors to call in. His Top Secret credentials wouldn't hurt either.

Faith just smirked. "Speaking of access. Since you're my husband, I could get some conjugal visits from you. Not usually a one-guy-kinda-girl, but when the choice is one or none..." she thought for a minute. "But first, I want a good 'ungh' to remember you by. Because that last one was a bit too fuzzy for my tastes." She pushed the door to shut it as she drug the Colonel to bed but the blonde stopped the door before it could close.

"Sir?" Sam asked.

"Jack, you can't take advantage of her like this." Daniel insisted.

Jack looked over Faith's shoulder as she removed his shirt. "Daniel, who's dragging who to the bed? Besides, I don't think I have to point out how you and your wife met. And that turned out pretty okay."

"I was just shutting the door to be polite. If you guys want to watch, that's fine by me. I kinda figured Blondie would like the show." Faith said as she removed her own shirt. She heard the door close behind her.

* * *

_Where do you look when you're standing down the hall from your CO's hotel room where you can hear him (or rather __you can hear his partner__) having sex and you're with two male team members?_ Samantha wondered. To say it was an uncomfortable wait for the team would be an understatement. They didn't even know if they should call the cops. She had freely admitted to being an escaped convict. And yet, Jack had said that he wanted to help her, so that didn't seem like the right course of action.

Finally, they were spared thinking about it any longer when the happy couple exited the hotel room.

"Your coworkers are kinda creepy, Jack. I think they were listening to us." Faith smirked.

"Couldn't you guys have waited in the lobby or something?" Jack asked.

"Umm..." they looked at each other. Clearly no one had thought of that.

"We wanted to make sure you were alright." Samantha defended, looking at Faith.

"Hey, I'm fine. I just wanted one last ride before I turn myself in." Faith said. Then did a mock double-take. "Oh, you meant _hi__-i-i__m_."

Sam resisted rolling her eyes at that. Jack gets married – drunk – to an escaped convict and she has a sense of humor like him. Typical, weird SG-1 luck.

As they walked from the hotel to the nearest police station, Faith answered any questions about herself that he asked. But refused to answer anything about her friends, recent events in Sunnydale, or the reason she and her blonde friend had reacted negatively to the idea of him being in the military except that she had no beef with the Army, that was her friend, Buffy. She'd just been thinking of that.

They talked about other things instead. It wasn't too long before Teal'c made another flub.

"Are you sure he's human?" Faith asked O'Neill jokingly. "How long have you known him?"

"I am indeed human. I am from Liberia. In Africa. On the planet earth." Teal'c informed her.

"How long have we been together?" Jack wondered. "Five years?"

"Seven." Sam corrected.

But Faith was only half listening to that info. 'Murray's explanation of his background wasn't very convincing. Then again, she hung out with vampires and demons. They seemed to trust the guy even if he wasn't human. She let the matter drop.

* * *

"Don't forget to get the reward." Faith mock-whispered again as they entered the police station. She made sure to keep her hands where the cops could see them.

"Yes, I'm here to collect a reward on this wanted fugitive." Jack indicated Faith as they approached the desk clerk.

The desk clerk barely looked up. "Name of the bounty?" he monotoned.

"Faith Lehane." Faith purred. The clerk sighed and typed her name into a computer. The fun part was watching him turn white when her name and record came up. She licked her lips lasciviously and winked at him when he turned back and really looked at her for the first time. Then the man promptly fell out of his chair. Faith chuckled. That might have been a mistake as the man drew his pistol from the ground. To her surprise, Jack jumped between them with a badge out.

"Whoa there. No need for guns. We talked her in without guns or even handcuffs. So, let's all calm down a bit before somebody gets hurt." Jack placated.

All activity in the station had stopped. There were now at least five guns drawn on her (and by extension, Jack).

"Like he said. They talked me into turning myself in. Not going to try anything. So I'd appreciate it if no one shot me." Faith smirked. She just couldn't help it. It was nice knowing you were the baddest bitch on the planet.

Jack put his US Air Force ID away. It didn't really give him any authority here, but it did help him look more official. And it might have just saved all their lives. Based on that reaction, Jack was now wondering if he shouldn't have just gotten that annulment after all.

* * *

"Yeah, Angel please." Faith said.

"..."

"I'll wait."

"..."

"Hey Angel. Thank Lorne for this and apologize to him for me."

"..."

"They had to cut their vacation short."

"..."

"I got married."

"..."

"Thanks, except that I used my real name."

"..."

"Yeah."

"..."

"Well you're the one with all the evil lawyers now. Why didn't we do that while I was there?"

"..."

"I know. I didn't think of it either. But anyway, I've turned myself in, maybe one of your guys could help?."

"..."

"Thanks."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3.

Despite what popular media might tell you, you have to drink a lot and usually quite regularly before you start losing any time. Granted, the excuse of not remembering is quite convenient when things that you did the night before are embarrassing. – Wesley Wyndam-Pryce remembered everything. Sure, he'd needed more than a few shots of liquid courage before he'd accepted her invitation to dance but once he did, he'd had a lot of fun. When Kennedy had wandered off to berate some mini-Slayers, he and Willow had started talking. Willow talked a lot even before she had any alcohol. After a couple of drinks, Willow-babble took on a whole new meaning.

She'd admitted that she'd been in love with a woman named Tara, who'd died. It had felt like a betrayal to her memory to date _anyone,_ much less a man. She definitely wasn't in love with Kennedy, not that she couldn't be some day, but it felt more like grasping for _something_ before they all died. She honestly wasn't sure if she was really gay or just bi. If she was bisexual, she wasn't sure if she'd ever find a man who could live up to Xander, even if he was mourning Anya right now. She was pretty sure she'd never find anyone, boy or girl, as sweet and kind as Tara was.

Wesley had opened up in turn. Explaining how he'd fallen for Fred but had waited too long to tell her. Here, he was supposed to be a bad-ass demon hunter and he couldn't even tell a pretty, smart, peppy girl like her that he loved her.

Willow had laughed at that. It was a very pretty laugh even if it hurt. But she'd explained that she mentally moved hyphens like that one place to the right when she heard them. Which had made him a bad ass-demon hunter. They both shared in a good belly laugh at that. And then a kiss. It was quite the whirlwind to the altar from there, involving many more drinks for both of them.

Just before they consummated the marriage, Willow warned him, "Kennedy might take it hard. But I'm pretty sure she won't hurt you."

"What? A bad ass-demon hunter like me? Why should I be worried?" he kissed her again just before he entered her.

* * *

Willow woke up scared. She too remembered everything about the night before. Wesley had shaved for the first time in probably months. And she was grateful to him for watching over her in Sunnydale. She kind of felt that she owed him that first kiss. Especially after that ass-demon joke. She hadn't meant to imply that he was gay. Not there was anything wrong with that! And the way he'd looked at her when he'd said she was pretty, smart, and peppy. She wasn't sure if he was still talking about Fred or about her. The way he'd looked at her after that had made it pretty clear though. And the kiss had been great. Better than Kennedy... so was she really gay after all? A couple more drinks to pluck up her courage and they were married. She had actually only been shooting for sex. She had to know if she was really gay. The alcohol really muddled the answer she got though.

But now the midgets hammering on her head told her she might have had five too many.

It wasn't like this was exactly sudden. Kennedy had actually noticed him noticing her before she did. A phone call to Fred clued her into the new Wesley. Kennedy took the fact that he'd had a crush on Fred rather personally. She thought that he'd just transferred his crush to a new genius. Willow had calmed her... mostly. She also learned learned that Wesley was a far better person, far better fighter, and far more committed to the fight against evil than she'd previously thought. Having started his own demon fighting group when he'd been kicked out by Angel. He was also very ruthless. Fred confided to her that if there was something that she absolutely needed done to save the world, Wesley would be the first person she'd call. Because he would do whatever it took. If that meant releasing both Angelus and Faith, then so be it. Both things had worked out okay so far, Willow decided.

Willow began noticing Wesley back. More subtly than him, of course.

She watched him train the potentials including Kennedy. He was a hard man then. Strong. Unforgiving, even. But then she watched him with Chao-ahn and it seemed like he was a different person. Very kind and caring. Patient, when no one else could take the time to learn even a few words of Chinese or take the time to try to teach her English. It earned him Chao-ahn's loyalty. And it certainly cemented his place in her own heart as someone she could trust.

And when she was asked to do the activation spell, there was only one person she knew who wouldn't hesitate to put her down if she went evil. She even called Fred and asked straight-up if she would trust him to kill her if she went evil. The answer was an emphatic 'yes'. Neither of them were sure that was a good thing that they knew he would be willing to do that, but it was what she needed right then.

Then on the bus when she'd been completely wiped from doing the spell, he had held her close as he guarded her and it had felt so right.

And now they were married. Certainly not who she thought she'd end up with. Especially after the first impression she'd gotten. But he'd changed so much since then. The scar on his neck was proof enough of that. She traced it lightly.

"Considering killing me so soon?" he asked without opening his eyes.

Willow jumped away from him and gave a small yelp of surprise.

"I had thought you would let your girlfriend do that for you and save yourself any scrutiny." Wesley continued.

Willow frowned. "You know, most people don't try to think of the most likely ways their spouse will kill them. Especially not the day after they're married."

"No." Wesley allowed. "But then most people don't marry the most powerful witch in the world, thereby getting between her and her Slayer girlfriend. Normal is a long ways from where we are." he finally cracked opened his eyes.

Willow stared into his blue eyes as she formulated a response. She forgot what she was going to say, then jumped again when the phone rang behind her.

* * *

Wesley was temped to laugh out loud. Just a few days ago, this witch had done a spell so powerful that it altered the very nature of reality itself and now she was jumping at the sound of a telephone. Granted, it was a bit annoying. "Aren't you going to get that?" he asked.

"Wasn't planning on it, no." Willow answered. "I'm not even sure if it's my room. They all kind of look alike."

Wesley turned away and put his feet on the carpet. Finding his underwear, he put them on without flashing his new wife too much of his pasty, white ass. Looking around, he found his own luggage in the corner. That and the fact that Kennedy wasn't here told him that he was in his own room. He rounded the bed to answer the phone. Reaching it just as it stopped ringing. He couldn't blame them; it had to have been 15 rings before he got there.

"Oh well, maybe they'll ca-" Willow was cut off when they did, in fact, call back.

"Pryce here." he answered.

"Wesley Wyndam-Pryce?" a female British voice he didn't recognize asked.

"Yes?" he answered cautiously.

"Please hold for the Prime Minister."

Wesley was stunned. The Prime Minister? He searched his mind for a reason he would be calling. Certainly the British government was aware of the council and of Slayers but they had extremely limited interactions. Usually just the council telling them when a streak of crime was supernatural in nature or the government asking them to see if their own streak of crime was supernatural. The council received no government funds and therefore the government had no say in what they did.

"Mr. Wyndam-Pryce?" a male voice he vaguely recognized came on.

"Yes, Mr. Prime Minister?" he answered.

"Ahh, good. My staff had a time finding you. I just wanted to be the first to congratulate you on your recent nuptials." the Prime Minister said.

"Why thank you, sir. If I may inquire as to how you found out so quickly? We only just found out this morning, ourselves." Wesley dug a bit.

"Not sure. My staff found it out. I assume it was from the internet. 90% of the stuff they bring me nowadays is from there." the politician explained. "But that brings me to the other reason I called. They were researching you in preparation for a Knighting Ceremony."

"A Knighting Ceremony?" Wesley repeated. Trying to get his mind in gear.

"Of course. Did you or did you not recently close a Hellmouth?" the Minister asked. "The world's most active one at that. Certainly worthy of appointment to the Royal Victorian Order. Yourself and Mr. Giles are to receive the Knight Commander award. Your wife, as a soon to be British citizen, will be awarded the Dame Commander award. Mr. Harris and Miss Summers the elder will be awarded the equivalent honorary titles as they are not British citizens. Miss Lehane is another matter. You realize of course that we can't go giving medals to convicts currently on the lam. (Of course) You're going to have to talk to her into giving herself up again. Then we can go to work on getting her record cleared or at the very least get her paroled as it is the opinion of the British government that her rehabilitation should be more... active, shall we say. Once she's legally out, then we can discuss an award for her as well. Probably simply Member of the Victorian Order for now. With advancement as she proves she's reformed, of course."

"Of course." Wesley said automatically. He was pretty sure that the minister was now just trying to overwhelm him with information, which he was honestly doing a pretty good job of. Something was up and a little shot of adrenaline was clearing his head. "I assume we can make plans for this sort of thing later, when I have a clearer head."

"Yes. I'm sure. Terrible thing what happened to the council. It leaves you and Mister – or Sir Rupert Giles - as almost the last living members of the council." the Minister said.

_Ah ha! _Wesley thought. _Now we get to what they want. _

"I'm sure you'll be wanting to restart the council. I want to assure you that you'll have all the support from Her Majesty's government that you could wish. Recreating such an ancient and honorable institution as the Watchers' Council would certainly be a chore for a group of people who escaped the Hellmouth with barely the clothes on their backs. Well, one could hardly blame them for accepting the first assistance they came across. We just want to assure you that the British government is prepared to give you far more and with no strings attached." The Prime Minister told him.

"First assistance? … Oh! You mean Angel?" Wesley realized.

"Yes. The vampire, Angelus, and Wolfram & Hart. Her Majesty's government is well aware of both of them. And the fact that you received assistance from them. You would do well to avoid anything they try to give you." the Minister warned. "You... didn't _sign_ anything, did you?"

"No. Nothing was signed." Wesley could hear the Minister literally sigh with relief. He decided now was not the time to tell him about how Angel was a changed man/demon/thing. Frankly, the fact that he'd signed on with Wolfram and Hart worried him a little. The fact that Fred had... worried him a lot. But he tried to put that out of his mind. "So, all we have to do for... boat loads of cash,"

"Logistical Support." the Prime Minister spoke over his crass way of putting it.

"...is to avoid all interactions with Angel and Wolfram and Hart?" Wesley finished.

"Not all interactions. Just any _friendly_ ones." the Minister spelled out.

"Mr. Prime Minister, I'll have to speak with the others, but I think you have yourself a deal." Wesley smiled as he hung up.

* * *

Wesley had been explaining to Willow everything that he'd learned from the Prime Minister and was just getting to the part where they were to be knighted when Chao-ahn knocked and came in. She started to tell him in halting English that he was missing breakfast when she noticed Willow and their state of somewhat dressedness. Wesley recognized the look she wore. It was the same one he'd been wearing when he realized that Fred had chosen Gunn. It was foolish of him not to realize that she had feelings for him. He was literally her connection to the world in many ways. She started chittering in Cantonese too fast for him to understand. Though he caught words such as 'bastard' and references to various animal dung and/or orifices.

He could take that. He deserved that for not making things clearer. That as a watcher, he simply couldn't be with a Slayer. But her yelling drew other girls and eventually Kennedy. Which ended with Willow and him locked in the bathroom while Willow put wards on the door to keep them safe.

"There, these should hold her." Willow said as she finished putting up the wards to protect them. She sagged into his arms. "Phew. Maintaining that barrier was tiring. Wards are so much better. Wish I'd thought of them against the Turok-han." she looked into his eyes. Then, realizing how close they were and still in their underwear, she jumped up. "Sorry."

Wesley just chuckled. "Are you apologizing for being held by your husband?" he teased.

"I'm just not sure what I'm feeling right now. And I'd like to be sure before we do anything." she explained.

"My dear, it may be a bit too late for that. And the Queen might be displeased if we got a divorce." she gave a smile.

"Please tell me you're talking about the band with the gay singer." Willow pleaded.

Wesley shook his head. "Afraid not. We are to be knighted. You, myself, and Mr. Giles. As Buffy and Xander are not British subjects, they will only receive honorary knighthoods. Which mostly means that they can't be called Sir or Dame, Dame Willow Wyndam-Pryce. Either way it's a great honor."

"Dame? Oh goddess." and she fainted into his arms.

"A bit too much excitement for one morning, I guess." Wesley observed as he caught her and laid her down on the bathmat. He placed a towel under her butt to keep it from the cold tile. He was just glad that she got the wards up before she slept. Now he just had to hope that Kennedy didn't think to come through the wall for him before Buffy or Faith could intervene. Because even as a human, she had been the best of all the potentials in martial skill, and he didn't think anyone other than one of the original Slayers would be able to take her in a stand up fight. He could probably kill her if it came to that, but he really hoped it wouldn't come to that. Killing your wife's former lover was far from the ideal way to begin a marriage.

* * *

"So that's it." Wesley finished explaining the British Government's offer. Buffy had jumped in to explain that Faith was going to turn herself back in in a few hours and that she'd married an Air Force Colonel when Wesley had mentioned that England would help get her out legally.

"Are we sure this isn't just a way for them to take control of the council?" Giles offered first.

"Does it matter?" Wesley countered. "We have," he turned to Willow, "how many girls around the world to find?"

"Two thousand. Give or take." she said softly.

"Two thousand girls around the world. Dark beings will be attracted to them and they will be unprepared to face that darkness. Now, what is the life expectancy of an untrained and watcher-less Slayer?" Wesley asked Giles.

"Three months." Giles said softly but firmly.

"Or less." Wesley finished for him. "Now, as long as we remain strong and don't allow them to appoint anyone to the council, I think we can avoid any long term control they try to exercise. We'll probably end up owing them a few favors. But favors in exchange for saving 2,000 Slayers is something I'd gladly trade. Especially as the council is effectively bankrupt."

"Wait! What? I thought you guys had lots of money?" Buffy surmised a lot of chatter that broke out over that.

"The council was fairly _wealthy_. Which simply means they had many possessions." Giles answered her. "Most of which the First managed to destroy. They had little in the way of _income_ though. Except for selling a few benign artifacts Slayers found each year to keep them going. That covered a few million pounds worth of operating expenses each year. Their bank accounts..."

"₤200,000. Maybe a bit more." Wesley answered his look.

"That's only ₤100 for each Slayer." Willow swallowed.

"Like I said, bankrupt." Wesley frowned.

Buffy stood. "I think we all need to think about that for a while. I, for one, would rather do that while on the road rather than as the guest of the military or of the Las Vegas PD. We've got enough money for food and gas. We'll think about everything as we drive and decide when we get to Cleveland. It's a big step to cut off Angel like-"

"No it's not." Rona disagreed. "You're the only one who doesn't want to cut him off. I say we take the money the nice, funny sounding people are trying to give us. Besides, Wes says Wolfram and Hart are evil. I'd cut 'em off just for that never mind for a bucket of money."

"I don't pretend to understand Angel's motivations." Wesley stated firmly. "However, he and his team have fought on the side of good for the past four years. They wouldn't sign up with them unless they had a plan." _He hoped. God how he hoped._

"So, was that for or against cutting them off?" Rona asked.

Wesley shot her a look but she didn't shrink back. She had the attitude and now she had the strength to back it up even with one arm still in a sling. "For." he said.

"All in favor?" Rona raised her hand.

Everyone but Buffy and Willow raised their hand. Willow slowly raised hers too, giving an apologetic look to Buffy.

"Motion carries." Buffy said, resignedly. "Wes, you want to call your buddy back while the rest of us load up?"

* * *

Willow and Wesley pulled Buffy, Xander, and Giles aside before they boarded the bus and informed them of the knighthood honors. Buffy wasn't quite as excited as Xander, but it did feel good to be recognized.

Xander also had news for them that he wasn't willing to share with the minis. It seemed that Anya had taken out life insurance policies on everyone. Five million on each of the core group and ten mil on each of the minis since she figured they would be more likely to die. It seemed that they were suddenly $65,000,000 richer than they'd thought.

"Xander, we can't take your money." Buffy said.

"Buffy's right. Especially with the British government offering us practically carte blanche. Besides the time it would take to physically acquire that money, it would only reduce what the Crown is willing to give us. Keep your money for now. If and when we decide to cut ties with the government, then you can decide if you're still willing to part with something." Wesley advised. "That could give us a bargaining chip they aren't expecting when the time comes."

* * *

"Wesley," Willow began. "I know you have feelings for Fred. It couldn't have been easy for you to- you know. In there..."

"I don't remember my marriage vows very clearly, but I do remember who I said them _to_. And it wasn't to Fred. It was to you. _Dame_ Willow Wyndam-Pryce." Wesley took her hand and kissed it. He was glad they were leaving Las Vegas and the temptation of an easy annulment. Because if Willow asked, he would have given her the annulment and damned the consequences. He never thought he'd ever find himself married to such an amazing woman as this and he was going to do everything in his power to make it work. He meant what he'd said. He knew who he'd married and it wasn't Fred. It was another girl just as amazing and he thanked heaven that there were even two such girls in all the universe and he found one willing to be his wife.

* * *

A/N: the idea for moving the hyphen to the right comes from the webcomic XKCD. Always reminded me of how people misunderstood his status and a rogue demon-hunter. (what's a rogue-demon?) Do not own, even though I'm not sure you can own that idea. Whether you can or not, I don't own it. Not sure if XKCD had been published yet, but it would certainly be something Willow would read if it had.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4.

A/N: Thank you to DonSample and DeepBlueJoy for pointing out that Faith had already met and beat up on Lee Mercer, and Gavin Park was not only dead but a main-ish character. Therefore now: Novac Hutchinson is the new lawyer.

Griffiths & Young is a fake British law firm on the side of good that I made up.

* * *

Faith was still in a holding cell when a guard came to take her to an interrogation room. Her lawyers were here. Lawyers. Plural. _Damn, Angel __must have__ pulled out all the stops._

There were two men waiting for her, one older and one younger one. The younger one stepped forward first. "Novac Hutchinson. Wolfram and Hart's Las Vegas branch."

He offered his hand and Faith took it, holding back a cringe. She could almost feel the evil wafting off him but wanted to be legally free and these guys were the best at that. Evil or no. The older man held out his hand, she took it too and was surprised that she didn't feel the desire to slay him.

"Arthur Brown. Of Griffiths and Young." he said with a British accent.

"I don't know anyone from there." Faith said hesitantly. Sure, he didn't feel evil, but she was pretty sure British people could be evil too. Weren't villains in movies played by British guys? There had to be a reason for that.

"No. Certainly not. We were called at the behest of Mr. and Mrs. Wyndam-Pryce. They wanted to ensure that you had..." he looked at the other lawyer, "competent representation. We wouldn't want anything to come back and bite you once Wolfram and Hart is back under its old management."

Faith could admit that was a good point. They _were_ evil. Still... "I didn't think the newlyweds had that much cash. Who's going to be paying for this?"

"Their group has struck a deal with the British Government for assistance. Freeing you _legally_ is part of that deal." Arthur answered.

"Right. Cause no government ever had an alternate agenda." Faith gave a snort.

"I'm not an employee of any government, Miss Lehane. So I can tell you honestly that they probably do have an agenda. Every government does. However, I can also say that Wolfram and Hart certainly has an agenda as well. And I, for one, would sooner blindly take the British government's agenda over _them_. Heck, I'd take the _American_ government's agenda over them."

"Hey now. Let's not be hasty." Faith joked.

"Indeed." Brown chuckled softly, reminding her of Giles just a bit. "Still, I'm afraid there's only one thing the two of us are going to agree on and that is that neither of our firms is willing to work together on this. If one of us fails, you'd be welcome to call the other then, but not before."

"Hey. You called us, remember?" Novac added. "We're doing you a favor."

He probably would have been better off saying nothing as the way he said 'favor' reminded Faith of way too many bad gangster movies. "Tell Angel, 'thanks anyways'. I'll give him a call if this doesn't work out."

The Wolfram and Hart lawyer grumbled, gathered his stuff, and left.

Faith turned to her new, non-evil lawyer. "So, what's next?"

"Next is we get a new room in case he left any bugs or a listening spell or anything." Arthur gathered up his stuff too.

Faith followed him to another room, at least slightly impressed that the man knew about the supernatural.

They got comfortable and Arthur pulled out a tape recorder. "Okay, now I need you to tell me everything that happened from the beginning; including the stuff you couldn't tell your last lawyer because it was mystically related."

* * *

The interview process took two full days. Arthur left to go over court transcripts and Faith was transferred back to California where she got to say sorry to the two guards she beat up.

"So, you break out and then you just turn yourself in again? Where did you go in between?" one guard asked.

"Well, first to LA and then back to Sunnydale. Made a stop in Vegas for some fun before I turned myself in again." Faith replied.

"You went..." The guard trailed off. Faith could see him putting the timing together. "Sorry I asked." he said.

Faith just grinned.

* * *

"Sir, there is something very wrong going on and it all ties back to Sunnydale." Jack stated.

"Oh, I agree there's something wrong. You married an _escaped convict,_ Jack." They were alone in General Hammond's office. This chewing out deserved to be private. After all, if Jack said the wrong thing, that might just be his new rank. "Do you have any idea how that smells? Politics are a fact of life at this level Jack and you just fell in an outhouse."

"In my defense, she did turn herself back in shortly after meeting me. I think I deserve a little credit for that." O'Neill squirmed. He knew he'd take a little flack for this, but this was more than he'd been expecting.

"You might have. If you had also had the marriage annulled or filed for divorce. Which you could still do." Hammond paused for a moment but got no reaction from his 2IC. "I'm sorry then, but you leave me with no choice. You are suspended with pay until further notice, pending an investigation into this matter. SG-2 happens to be down a member at the moment too. For now, SG-1 and SG-2 will operate as a combined unit under the command of Major Carter. Dismissed."

Jack saluted smartly and turned to leave.

"Oh, and Jack," Hammond's voice had softened. "Unless it's to deliver divorce papers, I'd suggest staying away from California."

"Is that an order, sir?" he asked. There was an edge to his voice that wasn't normally there.

"No, Jack. Just a suggestion from an old friend." the General said softly.

Jack O'Neill was on the next plane to San Francisco and from there to the Northern California Women's Correctional Facility.

* * *

"So, what do we know about Jack's, er... wife?" Samantha Carter asked.

"She is a skilled warrior." Teal'c stated.

"Really?" Daniel asked.

"Oh yeah. Her posture definitely said 'fighter'." Sam agreed. "But I'm going to start further back. Faith Lahane, born in a poor suburb of Boston. No listed father. Some petty crimes by the time she's 12. Busted a couple of times for solicitation at 14."

"Solicitation? At 14?" Daniel made a face.

Sam swallowed but nodded.

"I do not understand how asking for something could be a crime." Teal'c stated.

Daniel got to explain how solicitation was slang for prostitution, which was selling sex, which was illegal. Then he got to explain why underage sex was bad and underage prostitution was worse. Teal'c didn't really understand why, but memorized everything he was told so he would not violate the Tau'ri rules. And they had so many rules. Teal'c could not understand how a person could be ready for sex and/or marriage at a set date like the age 18. A Jaffa male was a man when he went through a rite of passage. That rite differed between clans. But for women it was always the same; her cycle had to be consistent for 6 cycles before she was considered a woman and thus ready to marry. That age certainly varied, but it ensured that the woman was truly ready before entering a marriage and didn't rely on something as arbitrary as age when she might not be ready at that age or might be ready much sooner.

"Anyway, her record in the Boston area stops at 15 with one last crime she's listed as a person of interest in. Two gangs totaling 27 healthy, rather violent, young men were admitted to the hospital one night. One gang was one Faith was known to associate with and the other was a rival gang. In all, five of 'her' gang and nine men of the other gang fingered her as the perpetrator of the violence. The police dismissed it as ludicrous: one little girl with no priors for anything violent suddenly beats the ever loving hell out of almost 30 men." Sam said. "Sounds silly. After that, the last mention of her in the Boston PD records was a request for her records by the Sunnydale PD."

"Of course." Daniel groused.

"The Sunnydale PD records were never backed up to the state archives. Something that's very suspicious." Sam began. "There was an article online about her murdering the deputy Mayor, but that turned out to be the one she admitted to being self-defense. But it's still very interesting: he was killed by a sharp, wooden implement to the heart."

"I do not understand." Teal'c said impassively. He tended to get frustrated at these types of meetings where he did not understand the meaning behind much of what was said. He was only thankful that Daniel Jackson was willing to explain things to him.

"Well, you see, Teal'c." Dr. Jackson began. "There are myths on Earth about creatures called vampires. They're corpses animated by... whatever and they stalk the night feeding on the blood of the living. There are any number of myths about them. And one of the few things most agree on – besides the blood drinking – is how to kill them, and that's a wooden stake through the heart. Pretty much what Sam just described."

"As you can imagine, I stopped researching Faith there and started researching Sunnydale." Sam explained. "There's quite a bit out there about the crater right now. But once I filtered that out, I found... well what I found doesn't make much sense. Sunnydale has – or had – the highest death rate in the country either in shear numbers or per capita. Now besides the fact that no one has heard of this, the most common cause of death in Sunnydale? Barbeque fork accident."

"You're kidding me." Daniel felt a chill go down his spine. At a look from Teal'c he explained. "Barbeque forks have two tines. Vampires are reputed to have two fangs with which they drink your blood. The coincidence... And the number of people who would have to die that way to make it the number one..." he trailed off at that thought.

"Oh it gets better, the second most common cause of death was wild animal attacks. Especially to the neck. Strange for a town with only one animal control officer. And I don't remember seeing _any_ animals while we were there. Nor any animal carcasses recovered." Sam looked between the men. "Faith admitted to killing a man in self defense. A man who turned out to have died by a stake to the heart."

"You think Faith is a vampire?" Teal'c asked.

"No, I think she's a vampire hunter." Sam declared. "Or she's crazy and thinks she is. We should probably let the Colonel know about this."

* * *

Faith no longer got to use the visitor booths, having already proved that she could escape from there at will. Instead, she got to use a secured delivery area. Two heavy, steel and concrete doors were all that separated her from freedom. Oh and two guys with shotguns, two with rifles, and a sniper in a tower outside. Her visitor got to enter one door and be trapped in an in-between room while she got to look through a small window and talk through an intercom.

"Jack. Didn't expect to see you so soon. Come back for more already? "Faith teased. "Yo Leroy! Open the door. Me and my hubby have a conjugal visit to take care of! Unless you happened to bring some divorce papers?"

"No, Faith. No divorce papers." Jack stated evenly.

"Meh. Girl can dream, can't she?"

"Faith." Jack said evenly. "I'm going to ask you something and I want you to tell me the truth. Are you a vampire hunter?"

* * *

"And that's not all." Sam continued. "I tried to get satellite images of just before and just after the collapse. Except there's nothing just before. There was an NID order that no satellite photos were to be taken of the town starting in 1998. That order required Presidential override. Once we had it, this was the first image the satellites were able to capture." Carter slid some photos to the others.

"Is that a school bus?" Daniel asked, magnifying glass in hand.

Samantha nodded. "Looks like. Which fits Faith's story of watching the collapse out the back window. I don't know of any other type of bus with back windows."

"Amazing." Daniel breathed before looking up. "But what did you say about the NID."

"Hoped you might catch that. Apparently the NID had an operation going there. I haven't been able to get more than a code name so far. 'The Initiative' sounds both vague and ominous enough to be one of theirs though." Sam told them.

"The NID is not an honorable organization. If Faith or her friends' first encounter with the military were with the NID, this could affect their attitude towards the military, such as we saw." Teal'c observed.

* * *

Faith stopped breathing. He hadn't said Slayer. Which meant... what? She didn't have the big brain to figure out what the hell this guy was thinking. "Just walk away, Jack. This isn't something you want to deal with." she discouraged.

"How about the Initiative? Know anything about them?" he asked.

"Not much. Was in a coma for the beginning of that little adventure and once I was awake, I was running." Faith explained honestly.

"Nothing else? Like their mission? Commanding officer? Anything?" Jack pressed.

"Anything else I know ain't my secret to share. Kay? I told you, back off. I got some new lawyers now. And as soon as I get out, I'm filing for divorce. You can file now and keep all your stuff, or I can file later and take half your shit for my troubles." Faith warned.

Jack just smirked. "So much for that conjugal visit."

"What? You wanna fuck? Just say the word. I'll have the maids make up a bed." Faith smiled when she heard the guards shift uncomfortably at being called maids. "Fair warning, they're going to strip search you and give you a gentle probe to make sure you aren't bringing me a weapon. But in prison, an anal probe is just like foreplay."

"You're serious?" Jack realized.

"Shit yeah, dawg. I spent three years in this joint with no one and nothing but my own two hands to keep me company. They won't let the guards touch us and the prisoners are all too afraid of me. Guards too for that matter. And everyone else I know is busy saving the- ...yeah. Busy with other stuff." Faith just barely caught herself.

"Saving the world?" Jack raised an eyebrow. "Is that what Sunnydale was? You and your friends saving the world?"

Faith just stared back.

A/N: Thank you to DonSample for pointing out that Faith had already met and beat up on Lee Mercer. Therefore now: Gavin Park was killed at the Los Angel's branch. You can blame the standard perpetuity clause or the fact that I hate coming up with names.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5.

"Gosh darn it. Blocked again." Willow swore.

Wesley just had to smile as he sat on the armrest of her chair. "I love it when you swear. Or as close as you ever get."

"Like you ever swear." Willow said.

"I do in fact use swear-words, like anybody else." Wesley denied.

"Oh really?" Willow looked up from her computer. "We've been married for a week now and I haven't heard anything approaching a swear word from you. Or in the weeks before when we were merely living together and seconds away from horrible death."

"I swear... when it's appropriate." he claimed.

"I thought the whole point of swearing was that it wasn't appropriate." Willow countered.

"Says the woman who just said 'gosh darn'?" Wesley said with a smile.

Willow deflated. "Point."

"You know, they say those who don't believe in Gosh and Jeez will be darned to Heck for half of eternity, right?" Wesley joked.

Willow couldn't help but laugh at that. "As a lapsed Jewish Wicca, I'm pretty sure I'm beyond the purview of Gosh and Jeez." After they shared a good laugh at that, she went on. "But back to business. Any news from Arthur? Because I thought I was a good hacker, but whoever is protecting this Jack O'Neill character is better. I'm almost tempted to try magic to help my rusty hacking skills."

"No, nothing from Arthur. And _almost_ tempted?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure yet if it's worth risking the world over yet." Willow said.

"Well, if you change your mind, let me know so I can get my shotgun out." Wesley said offhandedly. He stood up from the armrest and walked around behind her.

Honestly, she couldn't tell if he was joking or not. He seemed so nonchalant about the idea of having to put her down if she went evil. Which was... good, she supposed. But other times he seemed so caring. It just threw her off. It was one of the reasons they hadn't had sex yet. Or hadn't had sex sober yet. She couldn't pin down how he really felt about her. Or if it was just carryover of his love for Fred and if she loved him or if it was just carryover of her old crush on Giles. Or maybe they just both had a type. And even though they didn't find each other the first time around, now that they'd matured, they could see each other better.

"All I've been able to find is something about a Project Blue Book." she said, waving to the screen.

"Sounds mysterious. Perhaps we should contact Mr. Finn?" Wesley offered, leaning in close.

Willow felt his hot breath on her neck and his chest pressing into her back. She started getting worked up. Just when she thought they were about to kiss, there came a knock on the door.

* * *

"Thanks to the hotel records, we know most of the people that were traveling with Faith O'Neill, née Lehane."

"I thought it had been determined that Mrs. O'Neill's friends were not party to her crimes?" Hammond asked.

While he was doing that Daniel leaned over and explained to Teal'c that 'née' was a word that indicated a woman's former last name after she changed it when she got married.

"Bear with me, sir." Sam said.

Hammond knew she would get to her point eventually and it would probably be important. He motioned for her to go on.

"Now, based on the conversation that the Colonel overheard, these people are the most likely candidates for her 'father', 'brother', and 'sister'." Three photos flashed on the screen along with the names Rupert Giles, Alexander Harris, and Willow Rosenberg underneath them. "Buffy Summers also has an _actual_ sister, but she's only 18 and didn't get married that night. Now, Alexander Harris and Willow Rosenberg attended school in the same grade as Buffy Summers. And Dr. Rupert Giles immigrated to the US from England and took the position of librarian at Sunnydale High the same year that Buffy transferred in. And a few months after Faith Lehane moved to Sunnydale, this man," Wesley's name and face flashed on the screen. "also immigrated from England to Sunnydale. He did not take a job at the school and Faith didn't enroll there either, but I did come across a few reports from the principal talking about another British librarian that they didn't hire and a delinquent girl named Faith who was even worse than Buffy."

"That's an odd set of coincidences." Daniel allowed.

"Very. I can't make heads or tails of it yet. And there's a number of very odd statistics about the town and some things that just don't add up that I want to investigate later. But for now, I did find a marriage certificate for Willow Rosenberg and Wesley Wyndam-Pryce." Sam said.

Hammond cleared his throat and motioned for her to get to the point.

"Right. Well, I did a background check on all the key players in Faith's life, just in case. I got a red flag on the name Willow Rosenberg. It seems that she was on an FBI watch list for hacking a couple years ago. Nothing malicious was ever attached to her and she dropped out of the hacking scene before she reached 18 so the cases against her were shelved, but not closed. This morning, our own severs came under attack by someone in Cleveland trying to get information about Colonel O'Neill. The attack matches Willow's old hacker fingerprints. And thanks to credit card receipts; we know that most, if not all, of that group is in Cleveland right now."

Hammond was silent for a moment while he thought. "Well, it's comforting to know that they care about their friend. However, they can't be allowed to know about this base. Do we know what they got, if it was indeed them?"

"She got past the first layer easily enough. That's all publicly available information though, anyway. She broke through the second layer for a minute before we were able to kick her off. There is some Top Secret info on that layer, or there was before I ordered anything like that moved to the new fifth layer. But we don't know what, if anything, she found out. I also wanted to let you know that I ordered any computer with any information about the Stargate taken completely offline for now." Sam said. "I've got some men working on creating a closed ethernet for the base that won't be hackable from the outside."

"Wait. My laptop?" Daniel interrupted.

"I requisitioned you a new laptop. One that you'll be able to do your internet searches on but will have to keep all your Stargate research on the old laptop." Carter informed him. Daniel just nodded with a rueful look on his face.

"So, what are your recommendations?" the General asked.

Sam gave a wry grin. "Well, with your permission, sir. I'd like to call them."

"Call them?"

Samantha nodded. "Give them a warning before we take any action. Their town did just sink inexplicably into the ground. We couldn't take them to trial even if we wanted to. What little they might know combined with the Sunnydale Sinkhole and evidence of NID activity in the town combined with any sort of accusation from them and we'd be..." she shook her head. "Well, I'm not sure even the new Mrs. O'Neill would have enough swear words for that. At best we could have Mrs. Wyndam-Pryce on hacking charges, leaving the rest of the group free to make whatever accusations they want about us. Better to lean on them unofficially on this one, sir."

"Make your call, Major." Hammond stood. Ending the meeting.

* * *

"Come in." Wesley called.

"I need speak to Willow." Chao-ahn said in her rapidly improving English. "Alone." she motioned for Willow to follow her.

Willow followed the Asian girl to another room. Wesley was slightly surprised that Chao-ahn was talking to Willow again but wasn't scared for her safety. The Chinese Slayer had been no less upset than Kennedy had been, but never got the murderous rage that the American Slayer had. He sat down in Willow's still warm chair to go over what she'd gotten. Unlike the other Watcher, he wasn't at all scared of computers even if he did like books a bit more. Computers could be damn convenient. A minute later there was another knock on the door. "It's open."

And there was Kennedy, with a very unhappy look on her face. Though hopefully not murderous, he hoped. With Willow gone, he had very little hope of countering anything she wished to do to him unless he killed her outright. He mentally went over the locations of every weapon in the room and on his person.

Just in case.

* * *

Willow and Chao-ahn sat in silence for a minute. "Is there something I can help you with?" Willow ventured. This wasn't going to be an easy conversation, language barrier notwithstanding.

"You love him, yes or no?" Chao-ahn came right out with her main question. She had studied up and planned this with Kennedy and Dawn to make sure she said the right words. She had planned a few lead-up questions, but forgotten their translations when the time came. So she went with the only question she could remember, the most important one.

"Do you remember when I did the Spell?" there was no need to ask which spell. For all the minis, there was only one Spell. "Do you know why I asked him to be there and not Kennedy? Because I've gone evil before and I trusted him, I still trust him, to do what's necessary if that ever happens again." she took a breath. "But trusting him to kill me isn't quite the same as love. Or at least not romantic love. It's its own kind of love. Do you understand? And the other part is that I'm not sure if he loves _me_."

* * *

"Quite frankly, I'm not sure that's any of your business." Wesley said when faced with a similar question. "I might as well ask you if you loved your watcher." he gave her a pointed glance and she looked away. "It's complicated, yes? Willow and I have some things to work out partly because we've both changed so much from when we first met each other. There simply hasn't been time yet for us to really sit down with the trip here, the Crown's offer, and setting up a post here in Cleveland." He stood up. "Now, unless you are going to try to kill me, I suggest you leave so that I can have a private word with my wife."

Kennedy did leave, she opened the door and threw Willow's balance off as the witch was trying to open the same door from the other side. A look and a painful silence passed between them before Willow stood aside to let her ex-girlfriend through.

Once the door was shut, Willow turned to him. "She didn't hurt you, did she?"

Wesley smiled. It was probably the first truly caring thing she'd said since they'd been married. Maybehaps she did love him. He had been wondering on the trip here if perhaps she was just staying married to him because of his joke about the Queen being disappointed. He didn't want to pressure her if she really didn't love him. "No. She just wanted to talk. Though, I'll admit, she's a very intimidating woman. Possibly even more than Faith." he joked.

"And me?" Willow asked. Did he fear her as much as he feared Kennedy?

Wesley stepped in close to her and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. "You, my dear, are utterly incapable of intimidating anybody. You are far too sweet."

That was an incredibly sweet thing to say. Willow felt herself melting.

"Except when your eyes turn black." Wesley finished.

And it was gone. She'd have to train him better than that. But even so, it had been a very romantic moment at one point and had served to illustrate to her what Chao-ahn had told her that yes, he did care for her. So, perhaps there was hope for this weird ass-marriage after all. She was about to kiss him, just a quick peck, when there was another knock on the door.

"Go away." Wesley answered this time.

"Okay." Buffy's voice answered sarcastically. "It's only the US Air Force asking for Willow."

"Wait!" Willow called, breaking out of Wesley's hold. She threw open the door and took the phone from Buffy. "Hello?"

"Willow Wyndam-Pryce?" a woman on the other end asked.

"Yes?" she answered, expecting to be placed on hold to be transferred to the guy who called.

"I'm Dr. Major Samantha Carter," Sam replied. Adding the Dr. to her rank. Someone of the intelligence it took to hack at a high level was more likely to respect a Doctorate than a high rank in the Air Force no matter that the rank was harder to get.

"What can I do for you? Is this about Faith?" she guessed. She wasn't exactly surprised that the Air Force had found them. Faith's 'code' had been horrible and a few educated guesses matched against the hotel records would give them their names. Plus the fact that she and Wesley had gotten married that night too.

"Not exactly. This is more about a security breach that our computers experienced a few hours ago." Sam said calmly.

Willow's heart stopped.

"Now, we can appreciate that you're worried about your friend. But that doesn't excuse hacking into government servers. Why don't you tell me what you found?" Sam said.

"Nothing! Nothing, I swear. Just a name. Project Blue Book. Nothing else, I swear." Willow swore.

Buffy took the phone from her. "Hey! You can't threaten my friends like that!"

"Buffy!" Wesley cut off her rant before picking another extension. "Sir Wesley Wyndam-Pryce here."

"Mr. Wyndam-Pryce-" Sam began.

"Sir." he cut her off.

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"_Sir_ Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. My wife and I are to be knighted shortly. And really she is more deserving of the honor than I as she did most of the work while I most just stood there, so I would appreciate it if you referred to her as _Dame_ Willow Wyndam-Pryce." Wesley explained.

"Why are you being knighted?" Sam asked.

"That's classified, I'm afraid. Perhaps you should call the British Ambassador? You tell them your secrets, they tell you ours? Or some of them at any rate." Wesley teased.

Sam was a bit thrown. "Even so, that doesn't give you the right-"

"Yes, yes, yes. We got the message. No peeking. Will there be anything else?" Wes interrupted.

"Yeah, leave Faith alone." Buffy added another phone she had picked up.

Wesley shot her a glare. "Is that all?"

"No, I think you got the gist." Carter decided.

"Very well, thank you for calling." he and Buffy hung up. He went to take a shaking Willow in his arms. Motioning Buffy out. He held a scared Willow as old nightmares about being caught by the government for her hacking very nearly came true.

* * *

Faith hadn't been joking about the cavity search, or about the sex. And the sex was great. He worried that he was a dirty, old man just using her for sex, but he had yet to initiate any of their encounters; including their first, if his fuzzy memories were to be believed. There was just one thing missing. Any intimacy at all. "So, tell me about yourself." he said as casually as possible.

"Like what?" Faith frowned.

"Anything. I'm trying to get to know my wife." Jack replied.

"Divorce." was all Faith would say.

Jack scowled. "Fine. I'll start. This is my second marriage. I have an ex-wife named Sara O'Neill. Which reminds me, are you keeping the name?"

Faith turned away and looked at the bars holding them in. "Might. Never liked my last name much. Easier than makin' up my own shitty name." she turned around. "If you don't mind?"

Jack was struck by how unguarded she looked at that point. He hadn't thought this would have been considered intimate for her. "You're welcome to it." he nodded calmly. He told her a bit about Sara and about Charlie. He told her that he was dead, but not how or why. "What about you? Any exes I need to worry about?"

Faith just smirked at that.

_And the shield is back up,_ Jack thought.

"Naw, man. Three times ties the record for most times with the same guy." _Willingly._ "I probably should have warned you, I'm kind of a slut. Does that bother you?"

Faith might have emotional armor, but he was a career officer in the US Air Force, he could throw up a mask with the best of them. And she wasn't the best. "No, though if you cheat on me, then your plan to get a divorce will kind of go up in smoke. As the party who was faithful, all I'll have to tell the judge is that I still want to work things out and we'll stay married." Actually, he had no idea if that was true or not. He should probably do some research.

"Fuck you." Faith spat.

"Again? I'm not a young man any more, Faith." Jack joked. Mostly. He had been shocked to find out she was only just past the legal drinking age. He had passed that milestone a long time ago.

"You're just going to have to invest in those little, blue pills then. Call your doctor if your erection lasts more than 8 hours." Faith said.

"I thought it was 4 hours?" O'Neill asked.

"Please. I can keep you hard for 4 hours without any pills. But after 8 hours I just get bored." Faith said.

* * *

A/N: Shout out to Firefly at the beginning. I think I'm legally required to steal something from Firefly in every story I write.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6.

They weren't done setting up things in the States. Not by a long shot. But the Queen was ready to knight them and there was a bunch of stuff to do in England to get them lots and lots of money which would be useful in reestablishing the council worldwide. Rona was left in charge of the Cleveland house and all the new Slayers they had collected up until that point, mostly because her arm was still healing and she had been doing the boring logistical work like ordering food while the other girls went out to patrol or were sent to look for other Slayers. Three other Slayers from Sunnydale were being sent on long-term recruiting missions. Violet to the north-west US via Wisconsin and Minnesota. Shannon was sent on a tour of the southern US and Kennedy sent to recruit all along the east coast.

So it was that the four original Slayerettes plus Dawn and Wesley boarded a plane (first class of course, thanks to the Crown) bound for England. They arrived late at night, local time, and all of them were tired from traveling anyway so they went to bed straight away.

* * *

The next morning, Dawn shared breakfast with Buffy in the room they shared. Buffy hadn't said a word since they left America. Dawn was pretty sure they could count every word she'd said since arriving in Cleveland on two hands. Dawn had finally allowed herself to cry herself to sleep over the loss of Spike that night. She wasn't sure if Buffy had cried. Her sister hadn't come out of her room for two days.

There was plenty to do, but no one had asked anything of Buffy. Her friends at least knew enough that she needed a break, and short of an Apocalypse, were willing to give her the time to recover.

But seeing her face to face again, without someone shouting for her attention to solve a new crisis, Dawn could see. Buffy was empty. She suppressed a shudder at the way it reminded her of when they'd brought Buffy back from the dead. "So, what are your plans for after the ceremony?" she asked instead.

Dawn recognized the façade when it went up, the ditzy blonde act she played so well in high school. She wondered if the others would see past it as well. Dawn put on her own fake smile and nodded at Buffy's plans for shoes and shopping. Fake it until you make it had gotten them through before. Perhaps it would work again.

* * *

The first thing they all did together as a group was to go down and see for themselves where the old council headquarters had been. There wasn't much left. They really couldn't what what could have been destruction from the First Evil and what had simply been construction crews clearing away the rubble.

Then it was off to Buckingham Palace to ready themselves for the knighting ceremony. The actual ceremony took less than half an hour for all five of them even though the preparations had taken over three hours.

"That was... short." Xander said as they sat in a restaurant later waiting for their food.

"She didn't even say 'Arise, Sir Giles'. I was waiting for that part." Buffy complained.

Giles closed his eyes to stave off the headache that might otherwise erupt from Buffy's antics. "Buffy, first of all, that was never a part of the actual ceremony. Secondly, the proper address in public is Sir Rupert Giles, or Sir Rupert if you insist on being informal. And had you listened to the instructions we were given from the Lord Chamberlain before hand, you would have known that."

"I did listen. Didn't I go in from the left and exit to the right, just like you guys did?" Buffy argued.

"There were a lot more people there than I expected." Willow tried to change the subject.

"Yes, about 25 people receive investiture each year. Ours was a particularly large group with the five of us being added at the last minute as it were." Wesley answered his wife.

Buffy waived off this new information as if it didn't matter. "Whatever. So, when are we going to do the touristy thing?"

Dawn tried not to wince at that. This was still an ongoing crisis and no one, with the exception of Buffy, was going to get so much as a day off for the next few months. She looked around, expecting to see anger on the faces of Buffy's friends. Instead, everyone just looked sad. Maybe resigned. Hopefully that meant that they got it.

"This isn't exactly a holiday, Buffy." Giles chided gently. "We have to meet with representatives from the Prime Minister's office this afternoon to start transferring deeds and bank accounts to the new council."

"So, you'll be busy. Xander?" Buffy asked.

"I'm... going with Giles." He said sadly. "I need something productive to do and sightseeing isn't going to help me right now." He hoped Buffy would take the hint and ask for some work too as it might help her more than sightseeing, but wasn't banking on it.

"Dawn?"

"As much as I love shopping, Buffy, this is too important and too urgent. I already have a whole to-do list that looks like it'll take months to get done." Dawn answered. She was just glad that the others seemed be so understanding. No one was upset or angry that Buffy needed some time off. More than the rest of them.

"Will?" Buffy pleaded.

Willow cringed, sad to disappoint her friend. "Sorry Buffy. Wes and I are going to that meeting too, then while they get started on the actual work, we have another meeting with the Border Agency about fast-tracking my dual-nationality application. Being knighted helps," she stroked the medal pinned to her lapel, "but we still have to fill out all the proper paperwork."

Their food arrived and conversation was put on hold for a minute while it was distributed.

Willow waited until Buffy had already started to dig in before continuing. "Wesley and I talked about it, and we're going to be staying in England for the near future."

Whatever Buffy's startled gasp would have been was choked back behind her full mouth. This allowed Willow to continue mostly uninterrupted for a while as her friend tried to breathe again.

"There's just so much to do here. Some of it's stuff that can be done anywhere, but some of it's stuff that can only be done here. Plus I really need to talk to the Devon Coven again in person soon. Tomorrow, probably." she looked to her husband, who nodded. "And... it's Wesley's home. Since my home just got sucked into a hell-dimension, I figured we'd give Wesley's home a shot."

"We should have enough time sometime next week to pay my parents a visit." Wesley added.

"They'll be proud to see that you've been knighted." Willow said.

"I sincerely doubt it. I sent them invitations to attend and they weren't here." Wesley countered.

Willow sighed. "Mine didn't come either. Must run in the family." she joked.

"Back to the not coming back point." Buffy interjected. "Xander, how can you sit calmly and accept this?"

"I'm... not going back either." Xander replied. He knew this denial was Buffy's coping mechanism, but it hurt. "I don't know if I'll stay in England for too long, but someone needs to find these Slayers. And before they meet a vampire in a dark alley."

Buffy turned to her sister. "Don't even say it." she ordered sternly.

"I'm going with Chao-ahn to set up the Chinese Slayer house just as soon as the Cleveland house is finished." Dawn said defiantly. Just daring her sister to contradict her.

"Speaking of which. How is your French, Buffy?" Giles asked quickly. At one point in time, he remembered it had been quite good. And he was hoping to offer her a new purpose. After some time to get herself back together, of course. "We'll need a similar house set up on the continent."

Buffy stood up, panic in her eyes. "I can't- I can't- I just can't..." she said as she left the table and the restaurant. Giles was fast on her heels.

"Is everything alright with the food?" a waiter asked.

"Everything's fine." Wesley assured him. "Just some traumatic news, I'm afraid."

Once the waiter left, the group started talking again.

"That went well." Xander said sarcastically.

"Perhaps Buffy is still in need of a holiday." Wesley opined. He wished he had thought to check the council records before they were destroyed. He knew Buffy was probably one of, if not the, longest active Slayers in recorded history. That Buffy had lasted as long as she had under the amount of strain she had was nothing short of remarkable.

"I could... take her with me when I visit the Devon Coven?" Willow offered. "They really helped me when I..." she trailed off, not willing to say the words.

"Not this time." Wesley said. "Though you can ask tomorrow while you're there. There is good reason why the council and the coven are separate and it would be unwise to simply show up there with her in tow."

"I think what she really needs is some time off the front lines." Xander offered. No soldier ever survived constantly fighting like Buffy did. She needed some down time, yes. But in his opinion, she needed to be given a new job soon whether she wanted it or not. Something mindless and easy, but most importantly, no fighting.

"You could take her on your recruiting drive." Willow said.

"Right. Because the two of us would never attract any demons." Xander replied. If they insisted on that, he would just take her away and not do any recruiting. Find some factory jobs for the two of them for a few months.

"You'd attract them anyway. And that way you'd have protection." Willow countered.

"I can take care of myself." Xander shot back icily.

"Ahem." Dawn cleared her throat. "And we need to get Buffy _away_ from demons anyway. So let's think of other ideas."

After a couple of minutes of eating silently, Wesley spoke up. "It's not the demons that are the problem, it's the fighting, is it not? She needs a break. Some place where she wouldn't be attacked by demons or even humans."

"You know of a place?" Willow wondered.

Wes nodded. "It's not well known- It _wasn't_ well known in the council, but there are places with peaceful demon enclaves. The council attitude was to leave them alone... for now. They had bigger fish to fry as it were, though the idea was that they'd get around to them eventually. I had Violet go through one on her way to her recruiting drive to say hello and to leave the number for the Cleveland house in case they had anything they couldn't handle."

"Well, don't make us wait." Dawn leaned forward.

"Madison, Wisconsin has probably the largest and most peaceful community. Self policed. Buffy wouldn't have to lift a finger while she was there, at least not when it comes to fighting demons. And with the money we're getting these next few days, we can afford to host her there for as long as she needs." Wesley finished.

Xander looked gobsmacked. "So, your idea for a Slayer retirement home is a _demon_ enclave?"

Wesley frowned. "First of all, it's not a retirement home. Buffy just needs a break, as I understand it. Secondly, it's the safest place for her. The demons police themselves so there's nothing for her to do. Anywhere else, she would be expected to deal with any demonic issues as the Slayer. There, any issues are not her problem or her purview. She can be a normal person again. A dream she's expressed more than once in my own presence; and that was years ago. Plus the overall crime rate there is quite low. Perhaps because of demons patrolling to keep the peace, or perhaps simply because it's Wisconsin."

Each of them turned their attention back to their food to digest those words.

* * *

"You're trying my patience, son." General Hammond growled.

Riley Finn nodded. "I'm aware of that, sir. You probably aren't used to lowly Lieutenant Colonels disobeying a direct order. But I have higher orders and they state that I have permission to brief you on the Initiative project if and only if I think that you need to know about the former project. And to put it bluntly, sir, battling aliens from other planets is... nice to know, but not terribly shocking to me."

"The entire Sunnydale incident-" Carter began.

"The Initiative was closed down and mothballed long before that happened, like I said. I'm sorry there was some oversight that didn't allow satellite images of the town before sinkhole, but there's nothing I can do about that." Finn said.

"Oh for cryin' out loud. Does the name Faith Lehane mean anything to you?" O'Neill finally asked.

Finn tried and failed to control his reaction to that name.

"Why don't you start by telling us what you know about Faith?" the General said.

"Why don't you start by telling _me_ what you know about Faith?" Finn countered.

"Well, first of all, she's now Faith O'Neill." Jack said. "We got married a little while back."

Finn looked like someone had just told him that his puppy had just eaten a crocodile. Very confused with a side order of gobsmacked. "Excuse me. I need to make some phone calls."

* * *

SG-1 and General Hammond crowded around a monitor. Even if they could only hear one side of the conversation, it was still possible to learn a lot that Lt. Col. Finn didn't want them to know.

"Who's this?" Finn said into his phone.

"..."

"This is Lieutenant Colonel Riley Finn of the US Army. Can I speak to Buffy Summers, please?"

"..."

"Well, where is she?"

"..."

"England? Can I get a number for her there then?"

"..."

"No, I didn't think of the time difference. Just give me the number and I'll call her tomorrow. Do you happen to have Angel's number then?"

"..."

Riley wrote something down in a notebook. Then he frowned. "What do you mean you 'can't'?"

"..." It was a much longer pause than normal.

Riley took the phone away from his face before he let out a half sigh/half growl. "Fine. I can look that up myself. Thanks for your help." He hung up and dialed information. "Angel Investigations in Los Angeles. Yes, please connect us." After a short pause he went on. "Uh, I asked to be connected to Angel Investigations. Oh, you merged. Well, yes, I'd like to speak to Angel please."

"..."

He sighed yet again. "Fine when he gets out of his meeting, tell him that Colonel Riley Finn called and- Oh. Thank you."

"..." Another long pause.

"Angel, it's Riley Finn. Do you- Okay, good. Listen I'm calling about Faith. Apparen- Oh, so you heard. Yeah. So, what happened?"

"..."

"Well, it's not like a jail could hold her if she didn't want it to."

"..."

"Oh, so she helped you with the LA thing?"

"..."

"And then went to Sunnydale and helped close the Hellmouth."

"..."

"And then turned herself back in again. Interesting. That's a different Faith than the one I met. Did Buffy tell you about that?"

"..."

"Well, she was wearing Buffy's body at the time. Didn't do our relationship any good, I can tell you that. Anyway, thanks for your help."

* * *

"So, what you really want to know about is Faith? I can't say I knew her that well. And I can honestly say that she was never involved with the Initiative project." Finn said when he returned.

"Now, when you say 'wearing Buffy's body', you mean like a body swap, right? And not like she was wearing Buffy's skin or something? Because body swaps? Been there, done that. Interesting, but not terribly shocking to me." Jack smirked as he threw Finn's lines back at him.

"Really?"

"So, where did your body swap technology come from?" Jack pressed.

"I don't know. I was never told." Finn replied.

"But they switched back in the end, right?" Jack said.

"Yeah. Faith's back in her own body." Finn kicked himself for mentioning something like that over an open line. "Listen. Let me break down what I know about Faith. She went... rogue, is the best way I can put it. Ended up fighting against the good guys and I don't know why or how that went down. But she ended up in a coma before the fighting was over. Eight months later she woke up and didn't realize that the war was over. There was some new fighting. But in the end, she changed her mind, saved some hostages, gave Buffy back her body, and then took off. That was the last I heard of her. What I just found out was that she turned herself in to the cops shortly thereafter. And there she stayed until that stuff in LA started going down and they needed help clearing it up. And since she was already out, when Sunnydale started acting up, she went up there to help again before turning herself in again. Any questions?"

Jack raised his hand. "Yes. Who's 'they'."

"_They_ are people you don't need to know, Colonel. But tell you what. If your aliens are ever about to invade Earth again. You give me a call and I'll have them whip up an extra special Welcome to Earth present for them. It actually might be the only way you learn who _they_ are. That, or asking your wife." Finn said.

"She didn't want to tell me either." O'Neill mock pouted.

"Good luck with that. Sl- That type of girl can be stubborn." Finn said. "I'm sorry if those weren't the answers you were looking for."

"No, Colonel. I think you answered most of the important questions we had." General Hammond stood.

"Bye your leave, sir." Finn came to attention and saluted.

Hammond returned the salute. "Dismissed."


End file.
